The Dirty Faces thrive on contradiction as well as adversity. A series of personnel changes has seemingly only made them a stronger, more creative and more dedicated band. They are fiercely loyal to Pittsburgh, yet their guitar player lives in Brooklyn. Their live shows are noisy, messy affairs, but their albums contain surprising moments of quiet lucidity. While they are equally influenced by both American and British art punk (The Fall, Pere Ubu) and 1970’s classic rock (Led Zeppelin, ZZ Top), along with (of course) a healthy admiration for the primal rock of Iggy & the Stooges, AC/DC and everything hip hop, they manage to boil these influences down into something at once recognizable yet wholly their own. Originally founded in 1997 by singer T Glitter as a way to set his lyrics to his idea of what punk rock meant back then, the band soon became known for their energetic, often confrontational live shows. Band lineups shifted, but core members Tricky Powers and Glitter have remained constants. Their first album, Covered in Lime (Rickety Records, 1998), was described by Index magazine as “classic Rust Belt punk, a frenzied take on drug use and crumbling relationships in a city where everybody knows everybody.” The album made the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s year-end Top Albums list. In 2002 the band released their second album– the less conventional, more experimental More Lies (Rickety Records, 2002)– to favorable reviews, while the live shows maintained their scary nature. “A reconfigured Dirty Faces swooped into New York recently and blazed through a set of new songs with twin metal guitarists riffing practically the entire time. The unsuspecting audience left with jaws on the ground.”
Other releases by Dirty Faces
Get Right With God
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